Give and Get Back

Lori Luke
General Manager/CFNZ Trustee
Acorn Foundation

With the end of the fiscal year right around the corner, many people like to consider their giving plans.

At this time of year we remind generous locals that a donation to the community before 31 March will be eligible for a 33.3% tax credit.

There are now two ways to file for a tax credit when you make a one-off gift or engage in regular giving through an A/P with your local community foundation before 31 March.

• Submit copies of your donation receipt electronically throughout the year to your myIR account and claim donation tax credits as part of your end of year income tax process.
• File tax credit claim form (IR526) for the relevant tax year from April of the following year.
  

Hint: If you have missed filing tax credit forms for donations made in past years, the IRD will let you go back up to four years, for tax years 2016 through 2019.

Here in the Western Bay of Plenty, most of our 350 endowment funds are held by people who are still alive. More and more, our incredibly committed donors are starting to build their funds during their lifetimes. So many of them receive tremendous satisfaction by seeing the benefit of their contributions at work in our community.

Our donors support our local community in all sorts of ways, from:

• funding scholarships for Outward Bound, Dale Carnegie, tertiary education and international travel;
• providing excellence awards for fiction writing, performing arts, creative arts and sports;
• honouring family members who have died by supporting causes that would have been meaningful to them;
• or by working with the Acorn Foundation to find just the right local cause to support.

In the end, people give to the causes that they value most; the 33.3% tax credit provides a really nice incentive to act before 31 March.

It's a smart way to make your giving go further.